that photo is rather misleading, i took that from above, so its looking down on it,

so i finally got round to sorting the leak out, i scraped all the old sealent from the bonnet hinge to bulkhead out, and whilet donig it, i put my weapon through the metal, doh! never mind. it was very very very rusty there, and it was holed in a few places. is this normal?
and how can i replace it when it goes as it is starting to go for sure!!
anyway re sealed with dum dum, but in the long term i konwn i need to sort it out properly

i think i know where the leak down c post comes from, the top of the wigns there is a small gap, has to be through there!

First, stop picking at things that aren't problems, if you carry on like that the car WILL need a complete restoration very quickly.

To solve the problem of a rusty bonnet hinge, weld a new one in. You might as well remove the front screen and see what's under there, as it's probably rotten there too, if so replace the whole screen surround/bonnet hinge area.

i didnt realise that the bit under the sealent was part of the hinge? it hought the hinge was welded on vertically? where as this bit isnt as far as i can see part of the hinge, however thats just my judgement ive never seen a hinge unit off the car, so i wouldnt know.

one day i will get round to having the screen out, however i know its slightly rusty under there (to which extent im not sure~) as when the plastic by the demister was removed, you could see rust staining where water had been running, and if it had been raining you could see water coming through. since sealing my screen this is not been the case, however heavy the rain has been.

edit
looking at the hinge panel on ecas, its not the hinge panel i would be needing to replace, its the part behind it that id need to replace, which if im correct would be
http://www.ecas2cvparts.co.uk/repair-panel-area-below-vent-flap-p-840.html
but giving the likley hood of the windscreen surround being rusty, (i will have windscreen out before doing anything) i would imagine its wort replacing windscreen surround. however its not rusty enough or enough of a problem to warrent doing it so for now i wont

russell my aim is to try and prevent the car from needing a full resto for as long as i can, from doing things like this, im not trying to nit pick, just trying to be preventative.

I don't undertsand. It's rusty. You need to weld it. The panel you want is (best case) this: http://www.ecas2cvparts.co.uk/repair-pa ... p-840.html

Or worst case, this: http://www.ecas2cvparts.co.uk/wind-scre ... -1564.html

There is no other way to repair it.

yer those where the two i was looking at. but realistlcy speaking, i know the windscreen surround isnt perfect, so might as well not delay the enevatable and replace the lot, but im going to put it off for now as its not obvious that its rusted through with a bit or persuation from my stupidity with the tool i was using, but its still very rusty under dum dum, only way to tell would be to dig out the dum dum and look. rest of it is fine

plus the fact i really cant afford it right now! but come spring should have a (fingers crossed) full time job and ill probably replace it then.

Cant remeber if it was here or another topic, however my question is regarding filler, purely out of interest, is there a filler with metal traces in thus makong it magnetic? Only asking out of interest

Yep,
it's usually known as welding, so I've heard...

ken

I suspect this might be wot you're thinking of ....its crap though
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... yId_165625
It dont do wot it sez on the tin ....
I'm amazed some-body aint sued 'em yet.
Leave well alone ...

T.

Only reason i ask, is that when i wentto buy my car, i took a magnet to check for filler, just wondering for future reference ifthere are fillers that can fook the magnet user, i have no intention of using filler!!!!